Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stomach Ache

Chapter 11

What if Ron and Hermione tried a different method to save Harry at Quidditch?

By

Jason Richard

In the Hogwarts corridors later on, Harry saw Snape limping away, muttering.

"I really do hate three-headed dogs," he said, and then he saw Harry.

"No particular reason why," said Snape. "I just hate them."

Harry, "I bet you hate anything cute."

Snape almost snapped at him, but then said, "Actually I do. I find cute things quite annoying."

"Okay," said Harry, walking away. He then thought to himself that Snape was rather suspicious.

And Quirrell appeared from another corridor, also cradling a limp leg and saying, "I really do hate three-headed dogs."

"At least I know Quirrell's not suspicious," said Harry.

Later, in the Gryffindor common room, he told Ron and Hermione about it and figured that Snape must have tried to get past the three-headed dog in the third-floor corridor to get whatever's hidden there.

"But Harry," said Hermione. "I saw Quirrell limping too. How do you know he didn't do it?"

"She's got a point," said Ron.

"Duh," said Harry. "Because Snape is mean and Quirrell is nice."

Both of them, "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!"

Ron, "That makes sense."

"Regardless I'll need to keep an eye on him," said Harry. "Later anyway. I've got Quidditch!"

And thus they went to Harry's first ever Quidditch match. Harry got on his broom and flew up with the rest of the Gryffindor team at the Quidditch field. The Slytherins lines up across from them, and they all waited for the whistle to begin the game.

Meanwhile, Quirrell, with Voldemort hiding under his turban, got some instructions from his master as he sat down in the stands.

"Alright Quirrell," said Voldemort, whispering so as not to be heard by anyone else. "Remember that technique where you can jinx someone without your wand just by staring at them and not blinking."

Quirrell, "You mean the one we'll use this once and never mention again?"

Voldemort, "That's the one."

"Got it," said Quirrell.

Snape, meanwhile, had been following Quirrell and heard the entire thing. He knew he couldn't waste time. He too would use the wandless eye contact technique.

Soon the whistle was blown and the Quidditch game began. The Gryffindor team was doing fine at first until Gryffindor Captain and Keeper Wood was taken out by a bludger. Then the Slytherin team started pulling ahead. The only chance to win the game was for Harry to catch the snitch before the Slytherin's team got too high a score.

Unfortunately, Harry's broom started going Haywire, shaking and buckling under him like one of those cheap mechanical bulls.

"No Quirrell!" said Voldemort as Quirrell kept speaking his jinx. "Not like a silly muggle machine, like a Grecian minotaur! A Grecian minotaur!"

Quirrell tried harder, but he wasn't skilled enough to overdo Snape's counter-jinx. Snape was feeling pretty good about his ability to keep Harry safe as he also stared wide-eyed at Harry while muttering under his breath.

Meanwhile, Hermione knew immediately that someone must be jinxing Harry's broom, probably a Slytherin. She and Ron then wondered why Madam Hooch wasn't calling the came over this. It was rather odd that the referee of the game wasn't interested in a player whose broom might make him plummet twenty feet down to his death.

They got on their own brooms and flew over to talk to her.

"What do you think you're doing?" demanded Madam Hooch. "Flying up here during a game?"

"Madam Hooch Harry's broom is being jinxed," said Hermione. "Didn't you notice?'

"What that?" she asked, seeing Harry spin around like he was on particularly fast merry go round. "That's just first game jitters throwing his riding off."

Ron, "I think it's a bit more extreme than that. Look now!"

Harry's broom was now doing backflips in midair. Harry kept hoping he wasn't over the stands when he inevitably threw up.

Hooch, "You should have seen some of the stuff I made my broom do on my first game."

Ron, "Oh now that's the worst yet! It's smashing his head against the wall"

The broom went back and forth near the stadium wall and Harry's' head went Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham!

"Oh alright," said Madam Hooch, finally blowing her whistle.

As the game paused so they could figure out what was going on Quirrell stopped jinxing. Unfortunately, Snape took a second longer to stop as he wanted to make certain Quirrell had really stopped. It was during that second where Snape was talking and staring at Harry while Quirrell wasn't that Hermione looked over at Snape, concluding that he was the one behind the jinxing. She naturally pointed this out to Ron.

"So it's true," said Hermione. "Harry was right."

"Yeah," said Ron. "And it's obvious what we've got to do."

"Right," said Hermione. "Tell Dumbledore!"

Ron seemed surprised and said, "Uh... I was actually thinking of sneaking cornish pixies into his room to bite his ears off, but I guess that works too."

And Hermione scowled at him.